The Mini-Maker Faire

continued

As we walked further, we were greeted again by several robots--some that looked humanoid, others that did not, all blinking and beeping and talking and rolling around a large circle. One two-foot-high red robot was a real smart aleck, rolling right up to people, bumping into their shoes, and making wisecracks. The audience gathered close; the robot handlers stayed hidden in the crowd.

M hunkered down in the far corner for more than an hour to solder a digital clock circuit that became her alarm clock for years. Little Brother was mesmerized by the cannon that shot smoke rings into the air. HH and NN used centrifugal force to paint pictures and used a die cutter to cut a bronze butterfly. I was captivated by races between tiny robots made out of toothbrush heads and cell phone parts. We all danced in the laser light booth.

All the geeks in town seemed to be there. We ran into a lot of friends, and it was hard to tell who was having more fun--the adults or the children.

The next year, the Mini-Maker Faire expanded to fill most of the barns at the Washtenaw Farm Council grounds. Stalls that usually held lambs and pigs now held nerds and science experiments.